From Dawn Till Dusk
by logarhythm
Summary: It's a dreary January morning, and Roy Mustang is the only one bothered enough to turn up to work.  After a surprise visit from Winry Rockbell, she explains to him exactly why and how the Elric brothers are always so damn myterious. One-shot. NOT Roy/Win.


**Another one-shot XD I've been thinking about this for a while, so I decided to actually write it down :3**

**Roy's POV ;)**

**Disclamier~**

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><p><strong>From Dawn Till Dusk<strong>

I had always wondered about the Elric brothers. Firstly, there was Edward - vivacious and loud, a hurricane of emotion and determination. His alchemy was astounding, even when one ignores his lack of transmutation circles, and I often wondered just where he hid all those brain cells in that small head of his. Once you meet Edward Elric, I can guarantee you won't ever forget him. Then there was his brother. I noticed in the few years Edward had worked under me that people often overlooked Alphonse's presence in favour of Edward's, because Edward's very personality screamed for attention and awe. Alphonse was often left in the background with his quiet and polite demeanor, and it sometimes seemed as if hardly anyone even noticed him at all, despite being a rather imposing seven-foot-tall suit of armour. Edward, however, _always_ noticed him without fail. Anytime Alphonse said anything, Edward would reply, and he seemed to be constantly talking to his younger brother - or if Alphonse wasn't there for some rare reason, Edward was talking _about_ him. It was very obvious that Alphonse was Edward's eternal sun, and no one dared to even think what would happen if that sun set.

I rarely had the opportunity to talk to the younger Elric without his brother moping over a book in the corner, but when I did I found it really quite enlightening. I remember once I asked him, "Does Edward ever become annoying, always clinging to you like that?" Alphonse had stood up indignantly, and though his steel helmet was inanimate, the scowl was obvious in his haughty tone of voice when he answered. "No," he had stated, his annoyance well-disguised and barely detectable. "He could never be annoying, because I know I cling to him even more than he clings to me." The answer had surprised me, to say the least - despite being the younger of the pair, Alphonse had always acted the older brother, telling Edward off for rudeness and misbehaviour, remembering important dates and meetings and generally supporting his brother the way a mother would. But if I thought about it - _really_ thought about it - I would notice that, in all four years of Edward's employment, I could count the number of occasions that one brother was without the other in the office on one hand.

I often thought about the mysterious brothers when I had run out of paperwork for Hawkeye to hound me about, and was left staring vacantly at the slightly trashed door to my office. It was during one of these 'thinking times' that a certain blonde-haired mechanic decided to burst into the office, demanding (although rather politely) to see Edward, because he hadn't shown up for his automail check-up last week.

"I'm sorry, Miss Rockbell, but he's gone out," I said simply.

"Do you know where?" she asked, her irritancy seeping through slightly.

"Unfortunately not."

"Does _Al_ know where?"

"Probably. But I'm afraid Alphonse has also left, Miss Rockbell. About thirty minutes after Fullmetal did."

The teenager sighed. "Right, of course," she muttered under her breath. She turned to me again, a weary half-smile on her pretty face. "Do you know when either of them will be back?"

I smiled in apology. "Sorry, but no."

Winry scowled to herself, setting down her toolbox on Havoc's desk and striding over to the black leather sofa still laden with Edward's imprint. She flopped down into it, sighing heavily in irritation. "I guess I'll be staying here until they get back, then, Mr. Mustang," she said.

I nodded. "That's fine, Miss Rockbell." I paused in contemplation. "Though I would recommend removing your toolbox from Havoc's workspace - he can get quiet protective of his art projects, and it's a little too close for comfort."

Winry blinked, jumping up. "Oh, of course," she laughed, remembering the last time her toolbox got 'a little too close' to one of Havoc's art projects. She picked it up and sung it over her shoulder, before dropping it at her feet beside the sofa. She slumped back down, sinking into the expensive leather.

It was a cold January morning, and nearly half the officers and soldiers hadn't turned up to work, much to the Führer's chagrin. As of this morning, I was the only person to enter my office, as Hawkeye had rung an hour ago, claiming she had a terrible cold and was afraid I'd catch it, and no one else on my team was diligent enough to show up on a dreary Monday such as this one. I didn't blame them, really.

However, that left Miss Rockbell and I in quite an awkward situation, as neither of us had any work to do, and lacking the presence of someone like Havoc or Breda to ease the tension.

I was about to start what would have been a rather embarrassing and incredibly awkward conversation, when Winry spoke up first.

"They're so strange, aren't they?" she said quietly, a fond smile creeping up onto her young features.

"Who are, if you don't mind me asking?" I replied, my tone equally as calm and quiet as hers.

She turned to look at me, her smile growing slightly. "Ed and Al."

A spark of understanding lit up my face. "Oh."

She giggled. "No one can fully understand them. Not even me, and I've known them since I was two."

I smiled. "That's very true."

"Some people say Ed is predictable," she started. "In some ways, I guess he is - but I think that's just because he likes settling into some sort of routine, and whether it contains fighting, hospitals or doing routine checkup mission, he doesn't care. But really, he had the worst mood swings, and you can never tell exactly what he's going to do or say next." She laughed slightly, as if recalling some distant memory. "It's the same with Al, really, though he doesn't show it. Anything can make him happy, angry or depressed, and for the most bizarre of reasons, too. Like this one time I asked him if he wanted to help me plant a vegetable garden out the back of Granny's house, and he just excused himself and stormed off, just like that." She sighed. "And now they're out doing god-knows-what... I wouldn't be surprised to open the newspaper tomorrow and see a picture of Ed on the front cover because he's gone and done something completely reckless and stupid again." She laughed.

Winry reached down into her toolbox, rummaging around with one hand until she found what she wanted, and her eyes widened and a broad smile crept across her face. She withdrew the arm, and I caught sight of a shiny but well-used silver wrench, about the length of her forearm and nearly as thick. She twirled the metal around in her hands absentmindedly as she started talking again, a distant smile on her face.

"Y'know, I've heard loads of people say that Ed and Al are complete opposites. Ed's loud and rude, Al's quiet and polite. They're surprised they're so different, and yet can get along so well."

I nodded very slightly - I'd thought the same thing many times before. I often looked for similarities between myself and others, because from my point of view, similarities helped a person see what another meant, and it also prevented many arguments and clashes of opinion.

Miss Rockbell's face hardened slightly. "Those people are idiots."

I blinked.

"The reason those two get along so well is _because_ they're so different. It's like turning the tap on to wash your hands. You've got to have some water from the hot tap and some water from the cold tap to make the water a comfortable temperature, because otherwise it will either burn your hands or freeze them. It's exactly the same with Ed and Al. If they were both like Ed, they'd never get along because they'd be constantly fighting, and they'd probably both be dead by now because they'd be so reckless with nothing to hold them back. If they were both like Al, they'd be too shy to talk to each other and open a close bond between them, so they'd be living on opposite sides of the world without any contact whatsoever.

"The fact that those two are polar opposites is what makes them fit together so well - just like two jigsaw pieces."

I couldn't find anything to say as I sat at my desk, staring at the girl who claimed to not understand them. She didn't seem to notice my silence - she was staring contentedly at the wrench in her lap. The fact that she'd picked up on such subtle meanings and managed to think everything through to that extent amazed me - but then again, who else could have possibly had a chance of understanding anything about the brothers than their one and only best friend?

Miss Rockbell didn't seem like she was going to say any more, and I knew she could probably tell that I didn't really have much to say, either. The defeaning silence dragged on, and the air in the room became thicker and the oxygen scarcer until it was obvious one of us had to say _something_. Yet again, Winry saved me from the effort.

"Lots of those people also say," she started eventually, her voice barely more than a whisper, "that Ed is like 'day' and Al is like 'night'. Sometimes people say it the other way around, too, but that doesn't matter."

I wondered where she was getting at. _But __then __again_, I thought mildly, _maybe __she__'__s __just __thinking __out __loud_.

"I used to compare those two to 'day' and 'night' too, but then I realised that neither of them fit either of the descriptions very well. Ed is too aggressive to be 'night' but too depressed to be 'day'. Al is too quiet to be 'day' and too cheery to be 'night'. So often, when I missed them, I would lie in bed at night, thinking what on earth I could compare them to.

"Then I realised, one night a couple of years ago, that my first assumption wasn't far off."

I raised a curious eyebrow, now completely enthralled by the rare insight to the veiled Elric brothers.

Winry smiled slightly. "It just seemed so obvious once I'd thought of it. I think of Al, and I think of 'dawn'. I think of Ed, and I think of 'dusk'. Both take qualities from 'day' and 'night', and are opposites but so often paired together. Al suits 'dawn' so well, because he's full of hope and seeing him can lift your spirits surprisingly high, just like watching the dawn can. The sky is the palest shade of blue slipping into the darkest, and the sun's light is so blindingly white you can barely look at it. The dawn succeeds the night, as Al has so often gotten back up on his feet after falling hard. Whenever I think of the dawn I think of Al, and whenever I see Al's blinding smile I think of the dawn.

"And Ed is so obviously 'dusk'. The dusk is tired and weary after a whole day, and it slips into oblivion to welcome the dark night. The sun goes out, but it goes out with a bang. Have you ever seen a sunset, Mr. Mustang?"

The unexpected question nearly made me jump. "No," I murmured, unable to expand on the thought.

"It looks just like Ed. It turns the sky impossible colours of pink and purple and orange. You can stare at the sunset, unlike the dawn. The sun is larger and the most vibrant red you have ever seen. You could stare at the sunset for hours, and never get bored of it. The exotic colours are almost blinding in themselves, and contrast to an extreme with the pale blues and muffled yellows of the dawn. Once you see the sunset, you'll never forget it. Just like Ed."

I contemplated it. Everything just matched up perfectly in my head. It was just as Miss Rockbell had said - once you realised it, it was so obvious you wondered how you could ever miss it. The dawn could not happen without the sunset initiating the night, as the sunset could not happen without the dawn initiating the day. They balanced each other out to a pinnacle of perfection, each as beautiful as each other and each as startlingly unique.

And I knew as soon as I'd heard the words, for the next few days the Elric brothers would be plaguing my thoughts from dawn till dusk.

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><p><strong>Teehee :3 Just playing with ideas~<strong>


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